Fado Jazz

Fado Jazz is Júlio Resende’s first album with ACT Music, one of Europe’s leading jazz labels and home to extraordinary recordings by the likes of – crucial to this story – Vijay Iyer and Esbjörn Svensson Trio. On their ACT records, both Iyer and the late Svensson stretched the possibilities of the piano jazz trio, testing its limits but also keeping with the greatest tradition of lyricism that one associates with Keith Jarrett.

In his own and special way, Portuguese pianist Júlio Resende develops his style with a similar train of thought. But what truly distinguishes him, since he first redirected his initial flirting with pop songs to an exploration of fado, is this profound ability to interpret and reinvent Portugal’s trademark music through the piano. After the solos Amália por Júlio Resende (2013) and Fado & Further (2015), Resende now enhances the piano trio with the addition of a Portuguese guitar. And while doing so he underlines the common bluesy root to both jazz and fado in delicate tracks like ‘Lira’ and ‘Fado Blues’, immediately after enthralling us with the vigorous ‘Vira Mais Cinco’. But it is in the traditional Azores song ‘Profecia’, with a little assistance from the singer Lina, and in Resende’s moving ‘Este Piano Não te Esquece’, that this music truly elevates to the deep emotional resonance of fado. And when it does, it is truly remarkable.